About the Author: Kent Wayne

Hello everybody, my name is Kent Wayne.  I’ve started getting requests for personal info so I thought I’d put up this author page.  I know it’s commonly practiced social media etiquette to post lots of pictures and stuff about personal life, but I tend to veer the other way—I like my privacy.  Sorry if that offends you; I’m not trying to be rude.

I spent ten years in the military.  I was never a sex-nuts strong, roided-out Bin-laden-wasting-stud, nor was I a fat, whiny, high-and-tight (it’s the stereotypical military haircut) wearing pencil-pusher that lived to yell at people about uniform and haircut regulations because he was bullied in high school and couldn’t get a date.  Within those two extremes, I fall somewhere in between.  I’m not going to specify what units or branches I was in.  That was a different person, and it doesn’t matter now—I’m out and done with that stuff.  While it definitely informs my writing, the chapter has closed on that part of my life.

I prefer not to be thanked for my service.  There’s plenty of great articles out there that can express why better than I ever could.

My view on the military, just to give you some insight on my perspective:  the military is a reflection of society.  Of humanity.  Within it, you can find behavior that is villainous, heroic, idiotic, and genius.  The full spectrum.  And just like life, one person can exhibit some of each.  Nobody is a badass 100% of the time.  Nobody is a piece of shit 100% of the time.  I find most portrayals of the military reductive in that it doesn’t recognize this basic fact:  the military is made up of humans, and they are subject to human nature.  When it becomes clear that “shitbags” can be amazing and “heroes” can be child molesters, then the folly of using a label to reduce somebody to hero, baby-killer, badass, or brainwashed is revealed to be shortsighted and childish.

This is everywhere, not just the military.  I’m resigned to the idea that humans love to reduce the complexity of life into an easy-to-get-riled about, simplistic viewpoint.  But I have seen it get better as I’ve gotten older, so I still have hope.  I think the internet—and the increased ease of sharing information—has a lot to do with that.

The great lesson I learned from the military:  Ideals are nice and soul-stirring, but people tend to get blinded by them.  It is the ability to perceive the minutely relevant changes from instance to instance, from circumstance to circumstance, that will carry you.  It is not comfortably reductive idealism, but all-inclusory awareness that will let you navigate not just life, but all of existence.

(Hops off the soapbox)  I know that’s a poor bio, but I hope that my obnoxiously grandiose statement reveals more about me than if I were to list a boring series of life events.  And I hope it wasn’t too pretentiously poetic.  As a character from one of my favorite authors says (about a bunch of mentally masturbatory goth vampire wannabes):  “Too much time on their hands.  Leads to poetry.”

(Just kidding.  I love poetry.  Some of it.  Maybe.)

Thanks for checking out my work!  To all you writers, I wish you inspired drafting and insightful editing!

Kent Wayne

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1,444 thoughts on “About the Author: Kent Wayne”

  6. Best bio I’ve read in a long time. As a teacher of history for forever, I totally agree with your point of view. People are complicated. Events are complex. Motivations are multifaceted. Live for the nuance, die at the hands of blind idealism. Life is a grand bitch ain’t she? 😉

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    • Thanks! I’m flattered I can evoke one of the greats, even to a small degree. I haven’t read any of Hunter’s work, but I’ve heard plenty about his exploits and his daily routine (which I admire and cringe from; I don’t think I could last half a day in his shoes, haha!)

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  17. Nice bio. We tend to put people into boxes of our own design. And some of us haven’t designed many different boxes. Some great analogies of how our heroes sometime disappoint us or even come from places we’d never imagine. Nicely written.

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  19. “It is not comfortably reductive idealism, but all-inclusory awareness that will let you navigate not just life, but all of existence.” Not sure I know what comfortably reductive idealism is, but I do know that an “all-inclusive awareness” is something I strive for during my spiritual meditation in an attempt to “hear God.” Thanks for sharing a little about yourself Kent.

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  25. Hey Kent! I love you bio and I am in the same boat. Ten years in the military, and definitely somewhere in the middle when it comes to the extreme stereotypes. What pulled you into writing if you don’t mind me asking?

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  26. Hi Kent,
    Dropped by to thank you for liking some of my posts. Absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of ‘likes’ you have garnered. Gobsmacked and jealous! Glad you are doing well. Thanks for your good wishes to writers which are gratefully received. 😊

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  37. Thanks for the like – and thanks for sharing your author profile. Very engaging! I loved “Too much time on their hands. Leads to poetry.” Sounds a bit Wildean. Funny. Stay safe.

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  40. Well, I attempted to leave a message earlier, but not sure if I posted it. I would like to say that your bio is the most engaging bio I have ever read. You are an amazing writer and I totally enjoyed the read. Continue to be great and I’ll be watching for more reads.

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  41. Glad you liked my piece on High Flight; it is a wonderful poem, isn’t it?

    You won’t need this, but an excellent book for those wondering what life in the military can be like is Karl Marlantes’ “What it is like to go to war”. It’s about the American military experience, but there is a universal quality about it, and he has an academic’s perspective to offer as well as his all-too-real-world service in Vietnam.

    The more we realise that a whole range of characteristics can exist in any one person, the better a place the world will be!

    Best wishes.

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  43. Thank you for your service to this nation.

    I get what you’re saying because I’ve said it, too. I was only in for two years, short contract. Yet one day someone told me it wasn’t about how I felt or the fact I never saw any conflict, or the fact I never even left my home state. To her, it was the fact I upheld an oath to the Constitution, and did the best I could.

    I get that, too.

    You and I have enough in common to sit down and discuss this subject for a while and I think we’d both learn from the experience.

    Discendo Discimus.

    Yet at the end of the day sir, the nation you service should have a voice, an opinion of your time in uniform, regardless.

    Take Care,
    Mike

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    • Thanks and the same to you! I agree that we learn a lot by teaching, but I’d go so far as to say that teaching by our examples is the oft-most neglected form of tutelage. I’m of the opinion that you never have to worry about an intended audience when teaching with example–someone will be affected at the right place, right time. The most stress-free form of instructing!

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  44. Hey Kent thanks for the like on m blog. I have been blogging for almost 6 years, kind of ‘a blog about nothing” a al Seinfeld. Things were clearly going the wrong way when I started and have become unbelievably worse since. I never served in armed forces and doubt I could have made the physical but they never asked me either. I struggled with the down side of US policy and frequent calls to arms but I never blamed individuals who did serve. they were certainly giving full measure of what they saw as their duty. I was most impressed with the autobiographical book by Gen Mattis, “Call Sign Chaos” that was a. tutorial on leadership and the training and discipline that is demanded during hostilities. He is committed to intelligent implementation of ‘hearts and minds” as an objective in any conflict. (I would like to see more Mattises and way less politicians engineering foreign policy right now.
    Great piece you wrote, keep em coming. rhh

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    • Yep, I’ve briefly met Mattis and spoken with a ton of folks who served directly under him, and I haven’t heard them say anything but good stuff. The guy seems like a true patriot in the sense that he wants what’s good for his people, regardless of political ideology, and is willing to have an open discussion about how best to achieve that. No worries about not serving–it’s not a favor on my part, it truly was a privilege in every sense!

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  46. Hi there! Thanks for following my blog and liking a lot of my posts! I like your bio here, an interesting background, for sure. After checking out your twitter and website, it seems like you’re doing what I’d like to be doing someday: writing what I want to write, publishing it online for the people who want to read it, and eventually making a little bit of money for it 😀

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  47. ‘This is everywhere, not just the military. I’m resigned to the idea that humans love to reduce the complexity of life into an easy-to-get-riled about, simplistic viewpoint.’
    You have a refreshing (and affirmative) viewpoint 🙂 Thank you for being the way you are (hopefully you are your blog description page).

    Something that I wrote resonates with this a lot!
    https://ruminateandramble.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/beyond-intellect/

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  48. Thanks for liking the first post on my blog! I enjoyed reading your bio, you share a realistic, level-headed perspective that I think more of the world needs to hear (also, personally I know nothing about military life). “People are complicated” sounds banal but everyone forgets it frighteningly often.

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  49. I hadn’t planned to say anything but fear I must. Unfortunately, at time I feel I must stir the waters. As a therapist, I’ve spent years helping people find their strengths and pointing out their redeeming qualities when they were unable to connect with them. A former professor dubbed me the queen of positive reframing. Alas, there are some who walk on two feet that I fail to do just that. They are those who have no conscience at all. If you are aware of any virtues in Donald Trump that I fail to see, please let me know. Unfortunately, he is not alone in this situation.
    Now I’ve played the devil’s advocate, I must confess that I enjoyed your post.

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    • I’m not a fan myself. But I would be willing to bet that over a long enough time span, his behavior will ripple back into an underlying positivity. Maybe his shocking negativity will jumpstart the majority toward focusing on what is constructive instead of divisive. In the immediate sense, I’m fairly sure that someone out there has benefited from his presence, even if it was just to push themselves to be better or more capable because they didn’t want to work for him or wanted to prove him wrong. If nothing else, I have to admit he has made me laugh sometimes.

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      • It would be nice to think so but he is fanning the flames and encouraging the worst to spew hatred and violence. He has never been held accountable and he prevents those whom he has encouraged from being held accountable. However, the pendulum does have a tendency to swing far in one direction before it must swing the other way.

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      • I agree. And if there’s no relief in the specifics, then I’ve always found it in the general, where things are destined to die or transform into so radically that they might as well have perished. I try to focus on the surety that things will eventually get better, and the plenty of things (maybe small, maybe big) to appreciate around me.

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